Between Divinity and Mortality
by Acier Glace
Summary: Kaito is 9 when his world burns, 16 when his daemon first changes into a perfect copy of his mother's, and 17 when he learns that his father was murdered. His father was Kaitou KID, international thief and world's greatest magician, but there are some tricks that should never be revealed. This is when the lies start, but eventually the truth will always come to light.
1. Chapter 1

Timeline: Kaito Age 9 - "Return of the Phantom Thief"

They're nine years old and their entire world is burning away right in front of them. Fimal scatters in a mist of golden dust right before them so there is no doubt his father has died too. There is screaming and panic and if he closes his eyes the trick will be over. If he closes his eyes, his dad will come striding out, Fimal flitting proudly around him, smiling and saying, "What did I say about that Poker Face, Kaito?"

Aares shifts into something large, predatory and snarling as firefighters try to tug him away. She's practically smothering him in her fur and he hates shapes like this, hates how scared they tell everyone he is, but Aoko and Kiiva are huddled in a firefighter's arms and both are so, so scared, and it's probably alright that he is too.

Dad will come out of that. He's the greatest magician in the world. He will come out.

He will.

"Kaito!" Aares rumbles his name, teeth still bared at everyone pressing in on them, at the fire blazing in front of them. "We need to leave!"

"No." He can't raise his voice past the whisper, but he shakes his head and steps towards the fire, where no one is standing.

"Kaito! Please! We have to go!" Aoko is starting to struggle, Kiiva shifting into a bird and flying off in a panic. "Please, come with us!"

"No." Aares hisses, a lion's mane furling around her head as she shakes in time to Kaito. "We aren't staying."

Kaito wants to put up more of a fight because he knows that if he leaves, if he goes away, the trick won't ever finish. His dad won't come out. No audience means no magic. Aares slinks in front of him, golden in the firelight, and nudges at his chest with her nose.

"Go, Kaito." The lion pushes again, harder. Aoko grabs his hand and pulls him. The firefighters and their daemons close around them, sheltering them as the small party slowly, reluctantly, moves forward.

"Aoko!"

Nakamori is there, shouldering people out of his way, Kiiva leading the man's mastiff determinedly. Aoko releases his hand as Nakamori picks her up and then grabs him too, lifting him up and over his shoulder before he can protest. Aares shrinks into a sparrow and huddles under his shirt collar, sharp talons digging in hard enough to bleed.

His entire world vanishes.

-X-

He's eleven and he's never once solved something with his fists. Hands are magician's tools, just as much as his brain is, so he has to keep them ready. He has to keep them nimble and trained and clever.

But someone pushed Aares.

They pressed their hands on her fur, shoved her into him, and called them freaks.

She hisses, caught halfway in a change, and the other children and daemons scramble away in terror. Their bully, this little boy he's never seen before in his life, he's never spoken to ever, holds his ground as his daemon shrinks and curls under him.

Aares is caught halfway in a change, fur from her cat form meeting harshly into scales. Her tail ends in a rattle, her ears are pined down, her fangs are long and drip saliva.

She is caught halfway and he's so scared she's going to stay that way, that he doesn't even realize he's hit the boy until he feels the pain.

The boy screams, face bloody from where Kaito hit his nose, and Aares loses the scales as fast as they'd arrived. She's a kitten squirming into his arms with pitiful cries.

Kaito doesn't realize he's crying too.

Their teachers come, and Kaito and the boy are both taken to the nurse.

He hears the teachers talk about his father, about his mother who couldn't get to the school when they called, about Aares and her unnatural forms.

He hears the boy in the next bed over tell everyone how scared they all were of Aares. When she turned into a monster.

He never hears the teachers disagree.

-X-

He's thirteen and his mother needs to leave. She doesn't want to; he hears her arguing on the phone with her publicist.

But she's going to leave.

He pulls Aares into his lap and hides his face in her fur. She's a spaniel, silky white only at her ears and black everywhere else.

"What are we going to do?" he whispers, feeling her shake with him.

"I don't know," she whispers back, cold nose at his temple. "What we always do."

His mother sighs heavily in the other room, voice dropped to resignation, and he knows she's going to come looking for them.

She'll want to explain and placate and he'll have to smile and nod and agree.

And she'll leave.

When he hears her steps, he forces himself upright and carries Aares into their room. She hops onto the bed, shifting into a lemur as she goes and scrambling at his math book. He scrubs at his face and takes the book from her.

They're just starting their problem set homework when his mother taps on the door.

"Kaito?"

"Yeah, mom?" He pitches his voice bright and engaging, glancing up at her and Agrippa. His parents were the only ones he knew who had daemons of the same gender. But they fit together well. Fimal had a trickster's heart and Agrippa was devious to the core, and he could never think of them any other way.

"I need to talk to you about something important," she says, sitting on his bed and patting the space next to her.

He slouches next to her, Agrippa leaning over to curl her tail over his cheek. His skin tingles and warms where her scales touch.

"My publicist called. They need me to cover a story. I can't say no." She pauses and wraps an arm around his shoulders. "But they can let me bring someone with me. So we need to get a passport together for you and sort out your schoolwork."

He's staring at her, mouth slightly open, but Aares acts for the both of them.

"Where are we going?" she asks, climbing onto his shoulders.

"There's a magic castle in Vegas looking to get some good press." She squeezes him tighter. "Want to go learn some new tricks?"

"Yes!"

-X-

He's fifteen and they're different from everyone else around them. His mother wants to have him speak with a specialist, with anyone other than Aoko, but he can't. They want what's different about them to be wrong, for it to be some kind of illness. He knows. Kaito has read about it to Aares after they figure out how to hack into the daemon registration database.

Aares should have settled by now. And only if they're late bloomers. She changes too much, too fast and too different. She's been a snake, a hyena, a squirrel, a tortoise, all in a single afternoon. She has no preference for predator or prey, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects or arachnids. But she's never been something imaginary or extraordinary.

They have that at least.

"What are we going to do? They'll put us on the registry like this. We won't ever be able to make them accept us." Aares is a rabbit right now, white and black like most shapes she takes are, the only thing she's shown preference towards.

"We trick them into thinking nothing's wrong. Dad told us about Poker Face, told us about not giving anything away. Fimal never gave away any of his tells, did he?"

"Fimal was a magpie, Kaito. I still do this." She changes again, now a miserable looking sheep. "Even when we're in public."

"So, we're going to practice." Kaito closes out of the registry, turns away from the list of children whose daemons settled as monsters, as chimera, who never settled at all. They won't be on that list. Won't be pitied even more. Looked down on. Son of the magician who failed his final trick.

"How?"

"Mom said she's going to mention it at our next session. We have two weeks before they decide if we need a specialist instead of these general issue people. My emotions trigger yours right? So this isn't just keeping a blank face. We need to try harder than that."

Aares nods, shifting once more into the rabbit and hopping over to his lap. She calms as he brushes his hands over her fur, the knot in his chest going slack, just a little bit, as he relaxes under her.

They need to figure this out. Whatever else they need to do, they need to try.

-X-

Aoko's father watches him sometimes, especially when Aoko's daemon settles. Kiiva's a chatty ocelot, tan and gold and creamy white and black. His markings are a particular fascination, serpentine lines around the face and an eye on the chest like a hooded cobra.

Aoko's overjoyed, and as a way to celebrate, her father takes a rare weekend off and invites Kaito with them to Osaka.

They spend the day touring and eating at whatever place they find.

And Aoko's father and daemon watch them.

It's unnerving and makes Kaito feel especially self-conscious. Aoko and Kiiva don't notice, but Aares changes less and less, spending the final day as a docile fennec fox and mostly huddled under Kiiva.

"Do you think she'll stay like that?" Nakamori asks Kaito, voice just loud enough to be heard over the other people waiting in line for takoyaki.

"No," Kaito admits, and he waits for Nakamori to say something like his teachers, about how it's unnatural for a boy his age to have a daemon that changes.

How strange a boy like him must be with such a defensive daemon and an absent mother and a dead father and the closest thing to a parental figure he has is his neighbor.

"Ryuujin didn't settle until I was out of high school. She stuck to mostly dogs and a wolf once, but she wasn't settled until I knew what I was going to do in my future. Sometimes, just knowing yourself isn't enough. You have to know what you'll become."

Kaito stares at him.

He's not close to Nakamori. They rarely see each other now, when once they had family dinners together. That hadn't lasted long past his father's death, and it had felt right at the time.

It would have been tempting to substitute another father figure in his low points, but Nakamori never grew closer.

To hear him now, it was comforting, really.

Probably Nakamori's intention.

"Don't get disheartened about it. Understand, Kaito-kun?"

"Yeah." He smiles, despite his confusion, and Aares shifts into the biggest deer he's ever seen, scooping Kiiva onto her back and startling the entire line of people and daemons waiting with them.

Nakamori and Ryuujin laugh, despite the shouting and general mayhem of startled daemons.

It's the best day he's had in a while.

-X-

They're spending a holiday with his aunt Faye, who takes one look at him and decides that she needs to teach him the Mine family heritage.

It involves an outrageous number of Vegas standard poker decks, craps dice, and authentic betting chips which culminates in throwing knives, forging signatures, and shooting a pistol. The Mine family came from the courtesans and geiko, living art hanging on the arms of the wealthy and powerful. Like the Yakuza.

She's dismissed some muscle-type with a tiger daemon from the shooting range with barely a word. Knowing his mother's family has power isn't strange. His parents made friends with the strangest people in their lives, but not a one of them has ever had anything bad to say about his father.

They don't look at Aares like she's broken, either. Not a one.

And the tiger who'd just left had one eye scarred and milky, not a common sight to see daemons with injuries.

It's strange to have Aoko and her father on one side of his life, and his mother's criminal family on the other. But neither group makes him feel ostracized or weird or damaged. It's dissonance, but Kaito's making a life on balancing the impossible.

"C'mon kid, just hold steady here," she says, her hands covering his and adjusting his grip on the gun. "There we go. How does that feel?"

"Better," he says, "Faye-chan, how did you get so good at this?"

"Gotta learn sometime," she says, pushing his ear protection back in place and stepping back.

He empties the clip just as she instructed, each one hitting just slightly off center of the target.

It's not a bad effort for his third attempt.

"Much better," she says, grinning at him. "It's just practice from there. Gotta learn to hold that stance. You'll be shooting fans off poles and lights out of theaters before you know it."

"Will Jet-jii teach me then?" He asks, glancing through the safety glass to see Aares and Yanmei both pressing noses to the glass. The colugo bobs his head, encouraging, and Aares fluffs her feathers, feigning boredom.

"Jet'll be more than happy to teach you then," she says, lips tilting in a smirk. "I think your mother will bully him into it if you ask her."

"But I've got you to bully him," Kaito says, smiling at her with all the charm he can.

It makes her laugh, high and a little crazed, but it's still genuine. She wraps an arm around him, dragging her fingernails through his scalp and tugging at his hair.

"Let's go see Ed and Ein, okay? She can bully him for the both of us," Faye says, leading him back to the door to their daemons.

They'll be here for another week, or until his mother gets a new assignment and they need to go again. Somehow, they always find friends or family in the cities they visit.

It's nice not to be alone.

-X-

They're sixteen and they've pulled off the greatest magic trick that no one can ever know about. Aares spends most of her time as an Eurasian magpie, her registered form, but the shape changing never stops. They just get better at it.

So much so that they can become entirely new people.

Kaito learns how to disguise himself, slip into another form just as easily as Aares does. He starts with his mother, with Jii, with Aoko, the people he knows best. Aares takes on the shapes of their daemons.

They can't show this trick in public.

The next anniversary feels less.

Less everything.

He can't put any genuine feeling into the smile he wears for his mother. And even while they clean off the stone marker, he doesn't feel closer to his father or like the last sight he'd had wasn't of fire.

There's so much grief, he thinks, that it's filled both of them to the brim and now they can't tell it apart from anything else.

It's an apathy that he doesn't want to feel.

Aares becomes a ferret and wraps around his neck as they kneel next to their mother in front of the grave site marker.

They breathe together and as one, they push everything into the bond between them, where it floats away from them.

And the next breath doesn't hurt.

-X-

They're sixteen and they see more and more of his mother's family. His mother leaves him alone more, but there's always someone who stops by to check in on him.

He sees Carmen and her brilliant red Macaw, and they leave him with more knowledge about the world outside Japan.

He sees Nami and her night monkey, and they leave him with more knowledge of forgery and paper-craft.

He sees Isaac and Miria and their pair-bonded mongoose and cobra, and they leave him with more knowledge of bomb-making and disguises.

He sees Yuffie and her horned sea snake, and they leave him with more knowledge of throwing knives and sneaking through shadows.

He sees Clara and her morning lark, and they leave him with more knowledge about deceit and subterfuge.

He sees Budoukiba and her European mink, and they leave him with more knowledge of benzodiazepines and how to ply them like a pro.

There's a revolving door of people in his life, all of them a crook, a criminal, a grifter, a thief, and each one smiles at his daemon and shares a story about his parents.

He's a little lighter after each visit. He's a little less empty.

He also has more skills to apply to his magic craft and it makes both of them dangerous. Aares learns how to be the distraction, the accessory, the dumb animal, and it makes them both terrors.

-X-

He doesn't see his father's family.

They never attended his wake or his funeral or visited his grave marker during the anniversary.

He doesn't even have memories of them, to be honest.

He knows they're alive. He know his paternal grandparents are living near Kyoto, owners of some international shipping business, and content with the daughter and son they have. An aunt and uncle who have written off their eldest brother and live their own lives without ever intersecting with his.

He's probably better off.

He's gotta be better off without them.

-X-

They're seventeen and their father was murdered.

Their father was Kaitou KID.

He was the greatest magician in the world and he didn't fail that last trick.

He had been killed.

"We're going to stop them. Whoever killed him, we're going to make them pay." Kaito is in his father's private room. The hideout for Kaitou KID.

"Do you think we can do this, Kaito?" Aares had been nervous about their earlier performance, evading the police and helping Jii escape. Kaito had been too.

But now–

"We can. Dad was smart. No one knew who he was except for his killers and Jii. But maybe they made a mistake. Maybe Dad wasn't dead. Maybe they failed to make sure and he's been waiting, waiting to see what would happen if they think he's gone."

"You want them to think you're really him. That we're them." Aares flits into Fimal's dove shape and only the tips of her wings are black.

"No one knows about your shape changing. I look a lot like him. I can't do anything to hide how young we are, compared to them, but we can do it. Dad left all of this here, just waiting to be found. We can take it and get revenge for him."

"We expose them." Aares is warming up to the idea now.

"Who would believe us, otherwise? Hi, officer, my dad was Kaitou KID and I think someone killed him, oh, I'm Kuroba Kaito, son on Kuroba Touichi, yes, the magician, no, this isn't a trick." Kaito huffed and waved an arm around at the room. "Even if we brought them here, all we would be doing is unmasking Dad. They ruled it an accident then. They won't change their minds just because the son of a thief says it wasn't."

"Nakamori might believe us. He was the one investigating Kaitou KID, and he helped in the investigation of the fire. He didn't want it ruled an accident."

"He might." Kaito sighs and sinks to the floor, staring at the KID tools scattered around the room. "He didn't have any choice at the end, though. There wasn't any evidence for why it would be an arson, let alone murder. Dad didn't have any enemies, no rivals. If it comes out that he was KID, they'll think he did it on purpose to get away from them and it messed up. KID had enemies and the police might not want to help KID."

"If we do this, they won't help you." Aares shifts again, a shaggy-haired wolfhound carefully picking her way over to him around the cape. She settles against his back, warmth he can't help but sink into. "No one can find out about us. KID's enemies become ours and they've already killed. We can't become like them."

"No one can find out," Kaito agrees and pulls his determination and fear around him, shoves it out until it fades. Aares breathes in and out, exhaling their shared emotions until they can both settle. Maybe the others, the ones on the registry lists who had monsters or shape-shifters as daemons, learned how to stretch that bond between them so fear and pain and happiness could be forced into it instead of them. Maybe they didn't.

Maybe it was better that they couldn't.

Kaito couldn't feel anything.

-X-

His father dressed himself in white and announced to the world what and when he was going to steal.

Sometimes, he even said how he was going to do it.

Article after article demonizing, worshiping, criticizing, praising.

The world is half in love with the gentleman thief who steals your heart with your jewels. And it's obvious that he loves them back.

Every picture is a practiced pose, deliberately framed so he looks his best in every direction.

Kaito dresses himself in full regalia, and he mimics every pose until the way he tilts his hand matches his father's right down to the slightly skewed tip of his pointer finger.

There's a mirror down in the hideout room.

His father must have stood here and did the exact same thing.

Kaito wants to feel what he must have felt doing those same poses, but there's a haze between himself and those bright emotions. Like fog before the sun.

It takes a long time to dissipate, but by then he only feels pain.

-X-

He pushes everything into the bond again, later that year, when his mother comes home and they visit his father's grave.

He's numb to everything.

His mother's hand is tight in his, and he can feel her trembling through that connection.

Agrippa and Aares curl together in front of them, Aares as a white rat snake.

"Do you have any roses?" his mother asks.

"Yeah," Kaito says, and he pulls out red as blood long-thorn roses. He sets them by the offerings and wishes he had something better to give her than a handful of roses and hand to hold.

It's harder than it should be to pull the pain and grief from the space between him and Aares. And when he does, it's overwhelming.

-X-

Kaitou KID makes his debut and he's exhilarated. Aares takes the shape of a Verreaux's eagle, which took several hours of discussion and many compromises to decide on. Aares can hold specific shapes for a long time unless it's the daemon of another person. KID needed a daemon that could be seen, something that can be identifiable.

Dad never let Fimal be seen. Nothing was ever reported in the news, and after he hacks police servers and spends an afternoon impersonating a junior officer, there is nothing about KID's daemon in the police reports. However, there is speculation that KID's daemon, whatever it is, needs to be able to fly. Handwritten speculation in Nakamori's files has many theories about why KID has a tendency to escape by air, the daemon one being most prominent.

Kaito doesn't know if whoever killed his father knew about his daemon. His father registered Fimal as a dove, not as a magpie with a color-variant of all white, which made sense if he hacked the registry after becoming Kaitou KID to protect his identity. All of his father's doves were even cross-breeds to lend a little more credence to his image.

Fimal had simply been a magpie, though. Kaito knew and he was sure Jii and his mother knew. Everyone else believed Fimal was a dove and when Aares had settled, everyone believed he was trying to be closer to his father through his daemon. Their grief counselor wrote a very convincing report about how delaying his acceptance and grief had kept his daemon from settling into a shape that would only make him feel worse.

If Kaito was going to be KID, they needed a daemon that would make people notice them. If Dad's killers knew about Fimal, they could manipulate that. Let them think Dad had purposefully misguided their actions to trick them, to go into hiding as he waited for them to make their move. Aares' eagle shape was big, distinct, and, most important of all, fearless. She was a black and white shadow, moving silently in the air around him.

If KID was a phantom, a specter of white, then Aares was his reverse. They needed a predator, something that Aares could hold for any length of time, something that could fly. She settled as the eagle and Kaito was sure to let them see her, let her come swooping down and take the jewel from his hand. Her talons had locked around it and they'd vanished into the night.

They had made their choices and now they couldn't back down. Even if he hung up his cape after they found his father's killers, Kaito wasn't sure he could lose this.

He'd never surpass his father if he didn't master everything that had made his father great.

-X-

His life fills quickly after he dons the cape and hat.

He sees the distance that starts to build between him and Aoko. He sees it, but there's nothing he can do. Maybe he can figure out some way to balance both identities in the future.

He misses her as a person misses a lung. She's vital and life and anything he does without her is automatic and supported by computers and wires and artificial air.

"I'll go some other time, okay?"

"Okay," she says, but her hope is a gutted thing, and even Kiiva doesn't believe him.


	2. Chapter 2

Timeline: "The Police Are Everywhere" - "Blue Birthday"

-X-

There isn't much to say about Delon. He's the perfect foil for KID, but that also makes him useless. Aares outsmarts his doberman daemon, sending both of them out the window and Kaito's almost surprised to see him survive.

The Princess and her cat daemon believe in him. They're the first ones, aside from his slowly growing fanbase, that actually seem to enjoy meeting him.

Everything that happened with Nakamori, well, that's heartening in a different way. Despite how close he and Aoko are, his mother had drifted away from all their old friends. Nakamori had been the one to support her in the early months of their grief, but after the investigations were closed, his mother called them less and less. They speak, he knows, but nowhere near as much as they once had.

As much as he likes to live dangerously, and suspects he'd inherited as much from his parents, there was something depressing about how vehemently Nakamori wanted him gone.

He overworked the man, taunted him, humiliated him, and all more besides, but he needed Nakamori. Someone like Nakamori would believe in KID, would believe in the man under the hat, and he'd care about justice being brought to that man, not the publicity.

He'd rather have fifty Nakamori chase after him than even one more Delon.

-X-

It's a mistake.

Kaito'd put a rush on the job, trying to fit it in between exams, the theater club, and the last days of the exhibit closing. He hadn't been as thorough scouting as he should have been. If he had, he would have realized that Noda Keiko, curator and his current disguise, was secretly intimate with one of the police on the task force.

Aares is in the shape of Noda's hare while Kaito as Noda stands beside her desk to observe the gathered police, and Tachibana Takuya, police officer, and his shiba inu daemon part from their station to reassure who they believe are Noda and her hare Retta.

"Everything's going to be fine, Keiko-san," Tachibana says, reaching out with one hand. Kaito's ready to intercept, but Tachibana's hand angles away and his fingers run through the short fur on Aares' left ear.

There's no feeling like it. It's being struck by lightning, by bullets, by freezing water, while all the while nails rake across every exposed inch of skin.

It's agony.

And Kaito's shoving between them, eyes fixed on an officer about to lay hands on something delicate and priceless, and as he's berating the man, Aares puts as much distance between herself and Tachibana as discreetly as possible.

Later, when he's flying off with Aares, he sees Tachibana in the crowd, white-faced and frightened, as if realizing part of the deception.

He doesn't see Tachibana on the Task Force again.

-X-

He's thought about dying before.

When his father died, it had been like emptiness had opened inside his heart, inside his body, and he'd wanted nothing more than to disappear into it. If not for Aares, his mother, and Aoko, he's not sure if he wouldn't have tried to reach for death with both hands. But he's a survivor above all else and he doubts he would have succeeded at the end.

Now, though. Now, he's staring his death in the face, which is hilariously wearing his own face or had been before he'd shot it off, but it's something that believes it's him. The fake-Aares lies on the ground between them, feathers and machinery spilled and still. Aares had shifted into a wolf, then a snarling leopard, and ripped the poor magpie to pieces. If he hadn't known before that the fake was a robot, the expressionless way he'd watched his daemon die would have confirmed it.

He's holding his card gun to his head with his good arm, his other arm bleeding freely. He closes his eyes for a second as his finger squeezes the trigger, and he doesn't watch as the robot shoots itself.

"The world really only needs one Kuroba Kaito."

The robot is sputtering, circuits fried and destroyed, and it shouldn't even still be able to speak.

"Am...Am I going to die?"

"Yes." His heart actually hurts, because it's learned. It's changed from the creation that 'broke' its creator. It could learn and could have become something great, already is incredible, but it's become him and then wanted the world and it was going to do it with his face.

"Oh." The light in its eyes dims, and Kaito wants to go closer, but he can't bring himself to move. "Then, I must really be human now."

Whatever he wants to say to it is lost as it explodes. He tips his hat forward to hide his eyes, which start to burn with tears.

"Kaito. The police are coming. We need to leave." Aares is still a leopard, her ears tilted to hear better. She blurs into her eagle shape, clinging to his shoulders and nuzzling his chin with her beak. "Please."

"Let's go."

The next day, the papers report on an impostor Kaitou KID. Aoko won't look at him and the class seems to think they're getting married.

All he can think about is the robot wearing his face and holding the cold barrel of his gun to his own head. How he hadn't been sure it was going to work until it had.

How he'd been ready if it hadn't.

-X-

"It doesn't feel right," Aares whispers to him, nuzzled into his neck in her magpie shape. The movie crowd around them is cheering, Aoko doing so loudly in his ear. Kiiva purrs and cries just as loud.

"Now, no one suspects us. And Aoko and Kiiva had fun."

Aares nips his ear with her beak and he swallows back a yelp.

"That's not the point. It's like we're using them. We like them."

Kaito nods, even as Aoko turns to him in excitement and perks up even more. Her smile is so wide, so happy that he was right there beside her, that he can't help but smile back. She'd been so determined to prove him innocent, to give him cover. She's the greatest friend he's ever had.

But he can't tell her the truth.

Or how much he loves her in turn.

-X-

"Figure out what you have to protect." Silver tells them, and he's not coming with them. His otter daemon gives them a look and Kaito swallows past the thickness in his throat. He forces himself to keep going, despite how much he wants to argue.

He hadn't imagined his and Aoko's day out diving would have gone this terribly. He'd been ready to try and swallow back the hysteria that bubbled up when confronted by all the swimming fish, but he hadn't been ready for this.

He doesn't know what the right choice is, though he knows how Aoko would have answered. Life is important. Living for the future is important. Being alive to pass on those beliefs is important. She wouldn't have let Silver die to guard something, something material that couldn't equal the value of a life.

But he knows why someone would choose to die protecting something. His father must have been ready to do so, since he'd been KID and had so many enemies. He wonders how much his mother knew before she'd started traveling, leaving him behind with Jii for months at a time.

He should have argued. He would have if Aoko had been awake. But he didn't. He couldn't in the end.

He looks over at Aoko and Kiiva, curled up together, and knows he'll die to protect her. If he lives through catching his father's killers, he'll try to come clean to Aoko about being KID or, if she can't handle it, give up being KID for good. He could let KID die out if that meant protecting Aoko.

If he dies catching his father's killers... That's not something he likes to think about, but he knows himself well enough that he'd do it. It's part of the reason why he won't tell Aoko now. Being her friend and finding out the truth if he'd died would be hard enough for her. If they were closer, if they held each other as lovers, and she learned the truth...

He steels himself and flies the plane to safety.

-X-

They've stolen jewels and necklaces and jewel-encrusted headpieces and still they are no closer to finding the man who killed his father. He refuses to give up or slow down, but he does turn his eye to other things. Namely, the clock tower where he first met Aoko.

He investigates and spies and when he realizes they're criminals looking to get rich, he's furious.

"What can we do? They'll find out how to blame us if we can't prove anything." Aares is cautious where he's impulsive, but he can see how futile it would be to take what he knows to the police. He's illegally searched their belongings and spied on and hacked their accounts. What's to stop them from framing anyone coming forward?

"They want to steal something in broad daylight, without worrying about the consequences." Kaito walks to the hat rack, lifting the silk top hat and twirling it in his hands. "So, let's steal it first."

Aares rumbles, a tiger pacing in the little floor space. "How are we going to steal a building?"

"We let the police steal it for us." Kaito smiles.

-X-

KID leaves defeated in the eyes of the public, but if whoever was in that helicopter exposing his tricks doesn't figure it out, he'll turn himself in. Aoko is angry, Nakamori is frustrated, and every time Kaito looks up at the clock face, he can't help but smile.

Aares is proud, especially when he needs to rely on her shape shifting to get out of the stupid jam he'd gotten himself into, disappearing into a tree and shrinking into a magpie, as her eagle shape is much, much too large to go unnoticed.

The clock tower still stands, will probably always stand, long after the owners sell her. It's a landmark that KID has proven to defend.

It's something special that no one after KID will forget about.

-X-

They're in pain, burning and paralyzed in place on their knees, and Kaito grabs the chocolate heart reflexively when Akako holds it in front of him. Even as she laughs and waits for him to eat it and give himself over to her, he hesitates. Aares is holding her eagle shape; despite everything, their bond is holding true and he uses it to bolster his confidence.

The first tiny, absent touch of cold to his cheek sends his hopes soaring.

"Why the hesitation, KID? Hurry up and eat it!"

"Your magic spell has already lost its power!" He grins at her, fierce and proud, and smashes the chocolate in his fist. Her eyes widen and she whips her head around, focusing on the snow falling around them. Her snake daemon burrows into her cape, hissing angrily.

"There's snow on my magic circle!"

He swirls his cape and the fire around him goes out, the circle breaking at the same time.

"The out of season spring snow is Mother Nature's magic."

"Magic? That's your trump card?" She sneers at him. "Always escaping with magic tricks when you're in a pinch. It's just lies and illusions! You deceive people! My spells aren't lies, illusions, and coincidences! They're real! They really come true!"

Her face crumples and it looks like she's about to cry. But she's amazing. What she's done, even though it's against him and with poor intentions, was incredible.

"That's what I think, too."

He can tell he's surprised her. However, he doesn't waste time vanishing from sight in a puff of smoke.

"While it may be true that magic tricks utilize lies, illusions, and coincidences with the purpose to deceive people, those who are watching said magic tricks-"

"Shut up!" She goes for the hat he let drift down to the top of the tower, and the tricks he left behind activate, startling her in a burst of confetti, smoke, glitter, and birds.

"They enjoy the fact they are being deceived," he finishes, as the doves that popped out land on her and coo. "If you use magic spells to steal people's minds, you'll only become lonely."

"Resorting to force to rob people is what witches do."

He's been so distracted by Akako that he forgot what she'd done to Nakamori and the man is shooting at him from the wire that's stretched out to the tower. One of the bullets strikes a gas tank and the tower explodes, throwing Akako into the air.

He leaps after her, triggering the rocket skates, and Aares dives for the snake daemon, who is shrieking at being separated from his bonded. He catches her easily and activates the glider as Aares swoops in close to dump Akako's daemon in her lap.

"Diamet!" She huddles the snake close, the indigo-black body huddling in as close to her warmth as possible. He smiles at the tenderness she shows to the creature.

"You are the one deceiving your own heart. A thief is not to be made light of. Deep inside that freezing heart, I can see a beautiful gem hidden inside."

"KID-" Her eyes soften and she looks away. He lands on a rooftop, settling her gently on the cold surface before moving away to the ledge.

"Goodbye, my dear cute witch." He vanishes in another puff of smoke but leaves behind a flower, just as white as the snow. He lingers a while, curious about what may happen now. Even though she burns his flower and still seems to despise and desire him, he knows she was considering his words.

-X-

He's just watching Aoko, still out of her sight, when she gives him the perfect line for a dramatic entrance.

"My apologies for being a stupid jerk."

Aoko is actually adorable dressed as her father, and it just makes his KID costume all the more appropriate. She's surprised to see him, but he doesn't mind.

"Fujie-kun just finished skiing with his idol Koizumi."

"You look just like the real KID..." She has no idea and it cheers him, even though there's a small twinge in his heart. He doesn't let her see that.

"Idiot. I'm way cooler than the real thing." Aares chirps in laughter, just as Kiiva rolls his eyes and bounds up onto Aoko's shoulders. "Can't you do anything about your costume? You shouldn't settle for anything less than this."

He spreads a cloak over her and works his magic, covering her in the perfect snow white dress he'd been saving for something a little more meaningful than a stupid prank. She looks at her arms and the dress, eyes glittering, before he can see the thoughts on her face and she tries to be serious.

"Did you touch my butt?"

"I don't touch anything." He holds his hands up defensively, because he hadn't. "Now, let's kick this off. Last entry, Kaitou KID and Princess Nakamori!"

"But, I can't ski..."

"Wrong." He grins at her. "You can ski. You've fallen a lot, so you can't be scared, right? Relax and picture yourself skiing with confidence. You can do it."

He can see the determination on her face, and Kiiva rubs her chin.

"We can do it, Aoko. We can't do any worse than we've already done today, right?"

"Right." She scratches Kiiva's ears and helps him settle across the shoulders of her dress, grinning when she finds the little straps on the shoulders Kaito sewed on. She glances over at him and he feels elated.

"All right!" He snaps his fingers and the runway lights up.

He trails behind her as they head down the slope towards their classmates. She's laughing as she skis, Kiiva yowling his delight. The very second that she stumbles, that she loses her balance, he's ready. He scoops her up and doesn't even resist showboating, executing a perfect flip, because he's going to win this for her.

They do win and he lets the adoration from their classmates wash over them, basking in the attention. Aoko is so surprised, like she can't believe what he's done, even as Kiiva risks falling to lick Aares' feathery cheek. Aoko slips right off the small stage they're standing on.

"You're so clumsy."

"So harsh." She lets him help her back up, clutching tightly at his hand with both of hers.

"If you keep this up, you're never going to catch me." He grabs the mustache he'd tucked away, placing it over her lip. "Inspector."

The absolute delight that washes over her face is something he's going to treasure. She doesn't even hesitate to play along.

"Kaitou KID, I'll apprehend you this time for sure!" She raises her fists and laughter carries over them, even as he pretends to cower away.

It's probably the only time he'll ever be himself in his KID costume in front of Aoko. She takes it as well as can be expected, and he's genuinely happy.

It's the best Christmas he's had in a long time. His mother tries to be there for every holiday, but it hasn't been the same without his father. Still. If he can keep making Aoko happy, if he can keep these small memories, he'll have a priceless treasure that'll never be stolen.

-X-

The Prime Minister isn't a bad person, even if he's a bit of a hack as a magician.

Kaito feels pretty stupid after it's all done, but he's learned something as well. The robot wasn't going to be the last impersonator. Nor would he be the last one with malicious motives.

It had been harmless enough, as the only real victim had been his reputation.

-X-

The face-identifying robots throw him for a loop. He's actually thankful that's all they can manage, because if they'd been set to track a daemon's signature, he'd have no idea what to do.

Setting them on Aoko... Not exactly his finest moment, but it'd been the only thing he could think of that would prevent Nakamori from exploring further.

He hadn't planned on it creating a rift in her family, where Aoko had ignored her father for days. He'd done what he could to try and talk her around, but he'd only succeeded in making her angrier at KID.

-X-

Akako doesn't give up. He'll grant her that. Still, he's surprised that Aoko seems to adore her and treat her so well. Then again... Aoko sees the best in people, and Akako seems genuinely confused by Aoko's friendship. He hopes that Aoko could spread some of her good intentions to the witch before he winds up in real trouble.

And, it's nice to see Aoko surrounded by so many people, being happy. If Akako makes her that happy, he can tolerate and neutralize any and every crazy scheme their resident witch cooks up.

-X-

He hadn't anticipated this turn of events, but he's going to honor his father and Jii by not disgracing their names.

He hates being caught out by his own rules. The fact that the cue stick doesn't technically belong to Hasura means he can't steal it since his notice said he'd steal it from Hasura.

It's also humbling to realize he can't do everything. The pool game was a fluke win, but he's relied on luck and confidence to see him through and he's yet to fail.

And Jii's been there for him. He'd respected his father's memory, watched out for Kaito, and still kept active in the magician and thieving communities to help Kaito avenge his father. He's given their family his loyalty and Kaito's going to reward him for it.

"Why did you stay after tou-san died?" Kaito asks, well after the excitement for the day is over and Aoko was back home.

Jii looks up from where he's arranging glasses behind the bar. Nastraus is perched on the railing over their heads, but she flutters down to join Aares at the bar.

"I owed your father a debt, shortly after I met him. He was Kid and a master magician before we first met. I was about to lose my bar, in circumstances similar to what happened tonight. When I first opened my doors, I drew people in with my sapphire parrot. I named my bar after it, and people came from all over to see one of the largest sapphires in the world. Your father stole it from me."

"Tou-san did?" Aares shuffles in place, nervously fluffing her feathers even as Nastraus leans down to smooth them back.

"He sent me a notice announcing his plan, and the next night he'd arrived to steal it. Which was fortuitous, because that same night, my bar was broken into, shot up, and nearly burned to the ground. This was before every heist note was advertised in the papers, so no one knew Kid was coming to steal from me other than the two of us." Jii stops cleaning, eyes traveling over the bar and out of focus.

Nastraus hoots softly, spreading her wings. "We thought he'd had something to do with it at first. It was a shock to see him the next day, returning our parrot. He helped us fix the bar, payed for the few things our insurance couldn't cover, and became one of our regulars."

"The debt?"

"The men who'd destroyed the bar were going to kill us. Your father knew and by staging his heist, he saved my livelihood and my life. I would have been here, closing the bar and locking away my parrot, when the men attacked." Jii smiles and he meets Kaito' eyes. There's gratitude there, but also the same deep loss that Kaito still sees in the mirror.

"We started to involve ourselves in his heists, after that. At first, we just provided a place to recover and lay low. It escalated as those things did with your father. I started playing getaway driver and offering gadgets one of my friends crafted. I started being his assistant the year before you were born. After he died... I owed him my life and livelihood. I wouldn't dishonor your father with anything less than my continued loyalty," Jii says, patting the countertop as his eyes glisten with unshed tears.

"Why wear the costume after so long? Why start pretending?" Kaito asks, because it was one thing he didn't understand about that night.

Jii doesn't say anything.

Kaito sighs and lets the silence stretch between them, reaching out a hand to Aares.

"Someone was after him. They had made overtures about securing his help, but he never accepted. I've always believed that your father's last show was rigged. He was too careful designing his tricks. Other magicians make mistakes. Your father never slipped once when it counted."

"We saw someone that night, fleeing the scene while the building burned. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but I saw that man again during the funeral. He and his jackal were laughing." Jii's fists clench as Nastraus speaks.

"I needed time. Time to ease their eyes off of you and your mother. Time to train to be nearly half as good as Toichi. Time to make my appearance enough of a beacon that they wouldn't hesitate."

-X-

It's embarrassingly easy to trick Hakuba. Kaito would feel worse about it, but Hakuba has been annoyingly persistent.

He's also thankful that Hakuba and his falcon daemon aren't the typical police type with a canine daemon. Hakuba and Watson had been eerily on target for most of the case and that was without a sense of smell. If Watson had been a canine, or even had a more developed sense of smell, Aares would have been caught out the minute Hakuba had entered their classroom.

The fact that Aoko befriends the creep... It bothers him.

A lot.

What bothers him even more is how intelligent and challenging Hakuba actually is. He doesn't like him, but he can respect his intelligence and resourcefulness all the same. On one hand, he's thankful that it was one of his hairs that they'd recovered because Aares' feathers were matched to her daemon signature, thus, highly traceable and their shape-changing would be outed. On the other hand, his hair had narrowed the suspect pool and all the tricks in the world wouldn't help if Hakuba kept pushing.

He goes to the Ochiba Art Musuem to disprove him, because he surely couldn't know the truth. The fact that Akako corners him out of concern makes him hesitate just a little, but it's a challenge he can't resist.

Hakuba handcuffing them together wasn't something he'd predicted, but it was still easy enough to slip. The repeated cuffing and escaping attempts that follow just get more and more frustrating. Aares flutters nervously around his shoulders, Watson's steely eyes following her movements.

A fake KID, Akako playing KID, spares him the hassle, but also creates just as many problems.

That Spider character... Whatever knowledge he had about his father, even the fact that he knew his father was KID, leaves him thinking. He'd started this hoping that he could fool them into thinking he was his father, that he'd survived the attempt on his life. That some of them don't... it's dangerous.

He has to be better. Using KID's mantle for himself, to improve Kaito's life, might actually make things worse. He can't go after things that are precious to him, like the clock tower, like the pool cue... like Aoko.

If he's going to do this... Kaito and KID cannot overlap.

-X-

"_I, Kaitou KID, shall locate that Pandora gem before you do and shatter it into tiny pieces!" _

He's going to honor that declaration. These are the people responsible for his father's death, and he's stared the man Snake, who'd done the deed, in the eye. He'd uncovered a secret organization of thieves looking for something magical and nonexistent, and he was going to find it before them or die trying.

The fact that it's Aoko's birthday and he's pulled away her father and nearly broken his promise to her... it sobers him. He'd made the decision to separate KID and Kaito, so he can't get close to her like this. Doing KID business, even if it hurts her, it's something he has to do.

It's going to break his heart, but he sends off fireworks and says good bye to a childhood love he's never going to let go completely.

If it means she's safe, he'll vanish from her life entirely.


	3. Chapter 3

Timeline: "Black Star Pearl"

-X-

They're after the Black Star Pearl and something has changed. The little boy he'd met on the rooftop, who'd been lighting off fireworks to alert the police, was interesting. His white shepherd daemon had watched him with eyes far more intelligent than the seven or eight years old he'd appeared to be.

They get away, but he knows the Black Star they'd set out for him was a fake. He's going to get the real one. There's prime opportunity in the cruise the Suzuki Corporation arranges in a few days time. He stalks Mouri Ran, who has the pleasure of being his disguise for the evening, and poses as a dry cleaning serviceman to get a chance at her outfit.

He's watched her off and on between the failed heist and the cruise. She's sweet and protective, clever and honest, and she's Aoko's twin in spirit, while only a hairstyle away from being her twin in truth. Keeping an eye on her while Conan is in the house... it's hard. He doesn't usually have to accommodate children when observing a potential disguise, because it's highly unlikely any children will be in the building during his heists.

He'd been ready to make accommodations for her detective father, but he's laughably easy to avoid. Conan is the real problem. He's always watching out for Ran, or watching whatever garbage man or business man or traffic control officer Kaito's disguised himself as for observation purposes. He finds the best way to watch her is to send a spy dove and Aares, both equipped with cameras and microphones.

Distance seems to ease his difficulties, and he's gotten enough of a read to accurately portray her, even in front of those who know her best.

Approaching Mouri Ran and her otter daemon is simple. He's disguised as a server, Aares as a prim little cocker spaniel at his feet. She's charmed by the rose napkin he offers her, enough that he's able to get close and spritz sleeping gas over her face as Aares startles her daemon. As soon as she passes out, her daemon slumps unconscious.

"This isn't going to be fun," Aares mutters, shifting into a chimpanzee to lift the otter and trail after Kaito. There's no reasonable place to leave them except one of the lifeboats. He studies her clothes, and he's actually thankful she's the type to go without any special adornments like earrings or necklaces.

"It'll be fine," he reassures, stripping out of his waiter uniform and into a copy of the lovely red dress Ran had sent off to be cleaned well before the party. Aares changes into her otter daemon, smoothing her fur with a few licks. "Can you do it?"

"Of course I can. Remember to call me Urryu," she says, and her voice changes to match the male daemon's tone. He pulls out a compact and checks his disguise, evening out the makeup and running his fingers through the wig he'd brought. He takes a second to pin a note to her collar, enough to expose the fact he's taken a copy of her dress by pretending to be the dry cleaning service. It'll just aggravate anyone who finds her and discovers who KID decided to masquerade as.

He's as perfect as he can be, and he meets Aares eyes with a confident smile. He heads back to the main room with one last warning look from Aares. The trick to pretending to be someone else's daemon, especially when it will come out that KID was disguised as that person, is for Aares to play dumb and shy, rarely talking and sticking close to Kaito. If the police think he's got a menagerie of trained animals ready to impersonate a daemon, it keeps them well from the truth.

It'll come out eventually, what KID is capable of.

The truth always does.

He spots Suzuki Sonoko with her peacock daemon, Conan and his white Shepard, and finally, Mouri Kogoro and his Jack Russel terrier.

"Ran probably got lost somewhere. She's directionally impaired," Sonoko says, face flushed but obviously pleased about the party's reception.

"Who's directionally impaired?" he asks, flustered and slightly annoyed.

"There you are, Ran." Sonoko either misses or ignores the irritation he'd put into his voice, and bulldozes right through.

"Hm-hmm. I am Chaki from the Police Headquarters." They all turn to the older man on stage who's speaking on the microphone. Kaito knows exactly who he is. And what he's here for. "I'm sure many of you have heard already, but that thief has somehow snuck onto this ship. As some of you are also aware, he is a master of disguise. Not only can he change his face, but he can change his voice, personality, habits, and not even the daemon of the person he's pretending to be is safe."

That sends hushed whispers throughout the room, Sonoko tensing at his side.

"What he does completely breaks the rules of our society. It's monsterous." Chaki pauses as the whispering increases. "And he may already be among us. Under normal circumstances, we would have every one of you undergo a thorough inspection, but we will be avoiding such blunt procedure tonight. Instead, we will be using secret passwords. Please, pair up with a person in the room and choose a passcode between you, which you will use to identify each other."

This is such a basic ploy. It certainly won't be making his night any harder. He smiles as he leans down to Conan.

"Conan-kun. What should our password be?"

Conan looks in thought and then rises up and leans over. Kaito braces himself and leans far enough that Conan can whisper into his ear.

"So, when I say 'Holmes'-"

"I'll say Lupin," Kaito finishes, unable to resist leaving some clue behind. The trick on the rooftop with the fireworks had been interesting, and the difficulty he'd had spying on the Mouri family only made him even more curious about the little boy. He wants to see what would happen if he left some clue behind.

Conan's daemon, Hudson, huffs, a put-on sigh, and Aares ducks in to rub one floppy ear, just as they'd seen Ran's daemon do many times before. The dog actually startles just as the lights go out.

Laughter starts to echo through the room.

Smoke pours out of a corner, a spotlight focusing on the figure in white emerging from the wisps of smoke.

"Kaitou KID!" Conan says, shock in his voice. Kaito grins in the dark.

"Secret passcodes are useless," KID says, drawing away the hand he was using to pull his hat's brim low over his face. "I already have the Black Star Pearl in my hand." KID tosses the pearl, letting it flash in the spotlight, before he closes it in his fist.

Attitudes are divided on either side of him. Conan, Mouri, and Nakamori are outraged, while Sonoko and her mother seem amused and impressed by KID. The eldest Suzuki woman pulling out a gun and firing on KID, shooting the thief in the chest and sending him to the ground, that surprises him. The lights are back on and screams break out in the crowd as the seemingly lifeless body of KID is spotted on one of the tables.

"What have you done?" Nakamori is at least upset that KID has been murdered before his very eyes.

"I wouldn't worry, Inspector. He's still alive." Suzuki smiles at the crowd, commanding the room. Her daemon is a very dark mink, curled around her shoulders and watching the proceedings with glittering black eyes. "Our guard caught him with a tablecloth while he was pretending to be wounded by this toy gun."

She brandishes the weapon before tucking it away in her purse. KID climbs from the table and approaches her, a cocky smile on his lips.

"This is Sanada Kazumi, a talented magician that I hired as tonight's entertainment." The fake KID stops at her side, doffing his hat in a bow. "Everyone, please give a round of applause for his assistance predicting Kaitou KID's fate tonight."

Kaito's brow twitches as the requested applause begins, catching fervor as the fake KID bows to their audience.

"Kaitou KID is a master magician. I suppose you were just playing your enemy," A man remarks.

The fake KID begins to dissemble his costume, removing the monocle and then starting with the cape and jacket. It's practically sacrilege to see KID being unmasked and discarded so carelessly before others. Of course, as soon as his daemon pokes out of his collar, it's ridiculous to think he was KID. The smallest and cutest pygmy jerboa hooks little paws in his shirt collar to keep in place as the man moves.

"Well, both KID and I are artists who prefer to deceive the human eye. But I am a pure magician," Sanada continues, donning his own jacket and riding the last vestige's of KID's ensemble. Kaito's lips tighten in irritation."I won't lose to someone whose only intent is to steal. Everyone, please head to the stage so I may show you my magic."

Kaito scans the crowd, but everyone is enraptured by Sanada, gathering around the stage to watch his performance. The only ones who linger back are Nakamori, Mouri, and Conan. In fact, Conan looks unimpressed with Sanada, and he starts looking through the crowd intently.

"First, I'll start with a simple magic trick," Sanada announces as he shuffles a deck of cards between his hands.

"Wait. I've always been a critic." A dark man in a well-cut suit walks forward towards the stage. His daemon is a tan doe, cutting her way through the crowd with ease. She eyes Sanada's own daemon with some disdain. Kaito wants to laugh. "Would you mind letting me shuffle the deck?"

"Of course not. Everyone else may do so if you wish."

The deck is handed off with no fuss. Kaito decides this will be the trick he disrupts. All the better to cast some real suspicion onto the fake KID. The deck actually changes hands several times until it's reached the man beside Kaito. Lady Luck adores him, and the man beside him drops his cards during his turn to shuffle without any need on Kaito's part to make someone do it. He drops to his knees as the man apologizes, gathering up the cards and slipping in his own addition.

"Don't worry. My luck won't fail simply because you've dropped the cards."

Unfortunately for Sanada, he's chosen to malign Kaitou KID, and that he wouldn't abide. Kaito ignores Conan and Hudson as they wander off, instead approaching the stage with Sonoko to offer the cards back to Sanada. Sanada turns a charming smile on them.

"Thank you, ladies. Let me give you a card as thanks," he says, fanning the deck in one hand and offering it to them.

"Really? Can I?" Kaito asks, enthusiasm in his voice. He goes to reach for a card when Sanada stops him.

"Wait. Before you do, allow me to read your mind and predict exactly what card you'll draw," Sanada says, pulling the cards back and placing a finger at his temple in exaggerated concentration. The idea that Sanada is actually going to predict what will happen... Aares grips the hem of Kaito's dress in her tiny paw, and Kaito swallows down his laughter.

"This is so exciting," he says as he turns to Sonoko to share a smile with the girl.

Sanada is concentrating so hard, it almost distracts from the dove he pulls out of his sleeve with a puff of smoke. Kaito doesn't want to point any fingers, seeing as they're both magicians, but not every magician is cut from the same silk cloth. Even that Prime Minister could pull off that trick.

"Let's just say it'll be the ace of hearts," he exclaims to the crowd, offering the deck to Kaito and Sonoko again. The crowd laughs. "Now, please pick a card."

He lets Sonoko direct his choice, already certain how this will turn out. He's got the rigged card in his hand, and he takes the time to read it aloud, as if surprised to have found it.

"Just as Caesar was infatuated with Cleopatra, I am already by your side. Signed, Kaito KID."

"What?" Sanada asks in surprise.

"Kaitou KID!" Sonoko exclaims.

Unease washes through the crowd around them. Chaki walks the room, ordering everyone to collude with their partner and confirm the secret passcodes. He can hear Chaki berate Nakamori, but Conan's certain voice insists that KID hasn't taken anything, that he hasn't even left the room. Conan refusing to call him a magician lights his own temper, because there is no doubt that he's a magician at his core. It's not a good night for his self-esteem.

"Was that note really from Kaitou KID?" The crowd wants it verified, but there's no doubt.

"Yes. It was glued to the back of the card that Ran picked!" Sonoko says, her peacock daemon fluttering his wings and jostling his tail.

"But when could KID have done such a thing?" Sanada asks, surprise and confusion at being upstaged in his voice.

"We know he's already slipped in among the crowd." The man with the doe is watching everyone with sharp eyes, glossing over Sonoko and Kaito with obnoxious ease. The idea that KID wouldn't pretend to be a woman... it's narrow-minded. If this is the reception it gets him, he might portray himself as a woman more often.

Chaki is trying to calm the crowd, but he's too much bluster and harsh orders to be effective.

"He might already know where the Black Star Pearl is," Mouri says.

Kaito knows exactly where the Black Star Pearl is, and he's just waiting for the best chance to grab it without suspicion.

"Even if he does, this is a floating prison," Suzuki says. "Can he really escape with all of these police officers around?"

Well, it would be a prison if Kaito hadn't stashed his glider on the yacht as well. Dodging the helicopters will be about as easy as flying off in costume and then sending out a decoy while he changed his costume into black and vanished. He's also made a career out of dodging the police in enclosed places. He's always ready for a rousing game of 'Catch the Bandit.'

Nakamori orders the hall sealed, which means they're within range of Tokyo Harbor. He shouldn't get so predictable.

"Ran, what happened to your Black Star Pearl?" Sonoko asks, and Kaito looks down to his empty brooch, having already swiped the pearl and tucked it away. He feigns surprise, using the distraction to drop the pearl to the floor and send it rolling away.

"Excuse me. Would someone pick that up for me?" He starts after the rolling pearl, pausing to politely wait for larger daemons to move out of the way. A man goes to grab it as it stops, but the trick's already started, sending out smoke and glitter in a flash.

"The pearl exploded!" The man cries out. Fear and surprise send the crowd in a panic, and he tosses a few more rigged pearls into the crowd to build on that. It has the desired effect. Patrons begin to pull off the pearls and throw them away, crowding near the doors. The crowd's too worked up for the police to calm.

Some of the partygoers push Suzuki to the ground, her daemon falling from her shoulders. It's what he's been waiting for. He goes to Sonoko to help her mother.

"Are you alright?" he asks, bracing her shoulders.

"Yes. Thank you, Ran-chan," Suzuki turns to smile at him. He nods back to her, while Aares is helping the mink daemon find his feet. He takes the opportunity to swipe the Black Star Pearl from her brooch.

"Mom! Your Black Star Pearl is missing!" Sonoko says as she sinks down to her knees beside them.

Suzuki reaches for it, but comes up empty-handed.

She screams.

"KID! KID stole the Black Star Pearl!"

The police are overcome and guests are spilling out into the hallway. About half of the room has left, and Nakamori and his task force run after them, yelling orders to catch the disguised KID. Kaito watches them leave from his spot on the floor beside Suzuki. Sonoko helps her mother upright, Kaito steadying her when she starts to shake. Suzuki's mink daemon huddles up to his bonded, burrowing his face into the folds of her gown.

"Ran-neechan! Let's go try to catch him, too!" Conan shouts, grabbing his arm and tugging him towards the door. Hudson circles Aares, nudging her once with his nose to get her moving. He draws back with a sharp bark, and Kaito goes stumbling after Conan.

"Wait! Conan-kun!" He doesn't really want to spend time chasing after his own fake self, not when they're so close to the harbor. But Conan looks back up at him with a determined smile on his face.

"It's alright. I know which one Kaitou KID really is," Conan says, and he tugs Kaito's arm insistently.

Conan leads him to the engine room, finally releasing him when they're closed inside. Kaito has a feeling he knows what's going to happen now. Possibly another incident like on the rooftop, stalling until he can try to summon the police. It won't happen, but he likes that the kid was smart enough to work out the little hint he'd given earlier during the passcode game.

"Conan-kun, this is the engine room," he says. "Is Kaitou KID really here?"

Sometime during the run over here, Conan had dispensed a soccer ball from his belt. If Kaito hadn't seen that trick during his spying, he might have been surprised. Instead, he ignores it, anticipation building in his stomach. Aares wiggles closer.

"Ran-neechan, do you know anything about gem language?" Conan asks, ignoring Kaito's question.

"Gem language?" he asks, playing dumb.

"In gem language, the words for pearl are 'moon' and 'lady.' The only lady on this ship with the character for moon in her name is Suzuki Tomoko. She said she'd left it with the most appropriate person. So, she was wearing the real Black Star Pearl herself." Conan is toying with the ball, kicking it and balancing it on his head, while Hudson watches him with alert eyes.

"Oh. I get it! But how did that help you figure out who the real Kaitou KID is?"

"The card. Remember when you picked the card, it had KID's message glued to the back." Conan still isn't looking at him, but Hudson is on his paws, a stillness down his back that betrays the ease of Conan's words. Kaito can actually feel adrenaline rushing through him, sparking at his nerves.

"Yeah," he agrees.

"That trick works by distracting the audience, making them focus on the bird. Then the magician places a prepared card to the top of the deck. It's a simple trick." He starts bouncing the ball on his head. "That way, no matter how it's shuffled, the right card is always on the top."

"Then... Since the message was glued to the card, it must be Sanada!" Kaito proposes. Hudson huffs at him, shifting his weight.

"Nope!" Conan chirps. Kaito actually wants to smile at the stalling and patient behavior. He wonders when Conan is going to try to alert the police to where they are. "I was watching him, and he didn't go anywhere near Suzuki."

"Then who is it?" The anticipation makes his voice sharp, sharper than he expected. Aares hisses at him, pinching his bare leg with her paw.

"The only other person who could have switched the card. The person who helped pick up the cards and used that time to glue the message to one of them. The person who pretended to draw the card out of the deck. Isn't that right, Ran-neechan?" Conan stops playing with the soccer ball, and Hudson crouches slightly. "Or really, Kaitou KID?"

He's actually surprised that Conan is choosing to confront him before trying to call the police. But this was the same boy who'd pretended to light fireworks to alert the police, but never stopped any of the officers in the hotel below.

"You switched with Ran when she left the party hall. You even have her daemon right. It's impressive. I didn't even notice. You caused the disturbance with the card and the fake pearls, and then you stole the pearl while pretending to help Suzuki-san." Conan looks back at him, but his foot is still poised on the ball. "In order to have prepared such distractions, you already knew Suzuki-san was making fake pearls for the party."

"Stop joking around, Conan-kun," he starts, trying to throw the boy off and not wanting to give up the game entirely. Conan's been very accurate so far. He figured all that out without even considering the passcode yet, and it's surprising. "I didn't know which one was real. There weren't any hints or anything."

"You would have known the real one without any hints." Conan scoffs. "Suzuki-san used a glove to take the pearl out of the box. That's when you knew. Pearls are coated with calcium carbonate, which is vulnerable to acid, and even the oil of your hands can cause them to lose their luster and corrode. Some other guests at the party knew that, too. And Suzuki-san wouldn't have left the Pearl in the hands of someone who wouldn't know that fact."

"But that's not enough-"

"True. It's not," Conan interrupts. "But since Suzuki-san had a dull pearl, it's a solid guess. Like all other ancient pearls, the lifespan of their shine is only about ten years."

Kaito's impressed, despite himself. He hadn't learned that until he'd started working as KID, so he wouldn't inadvertently damage any of the things he'd taken.

"There's no way that a pearl bought sixty years ago would still have its gloss. But Suzuki-san was very careful with it, anyway. Of course it had to be the real one." Conan laughs, even as Hudson starts to growl. "It's ridiculous that I missed that, because I was so focused on finding you."

"But the Black Star Pearl at the museum was very shiny." Kaito's actually shaking a little bit. His nerves are stretched and he hasn't even really revealed himself yet. It's much more exciting than when Hakuba or Nakamori corner him.

"That's why you didn't steal it. You knew it was fake." Hudson takes one step forward, and Aares can't help but flinch at his side. Her pain at holding the otter shape is starting to drift through their bond, spurred on by Kaito's own anxiety and tension. "And in the second note, you challenged Suzuki-san to bring the real pearl."

"If you doubt me so much, let's call the police here." He goes to the phone on the wall, Aares as close as she can be to him. If he calls the police it'll be like the trick on the roof, where they think he's flown off, but he's really just slipped in among them.

A soccer ball destroys the phone beside him, and Kaito cannot believe the force behind the kick. He flinches away from the impact.

"You won't get to pull the same trick twice," Conan declares, catching the ball with a foot as it rebounds back. Hudson is showing his teeth, eyes dark as he stops by his bonded's side and menaces at Kaito and Aares. "You called the police to the rooftop so we would think you'd flown away, when really, you just disguised yourself as a police officer and hid in the crowd. Hudson could still smell you on the rooftop, even though you'd already supposedly flown away. You can forget about calling someone here. I've got this trap prepared for an artistic criminal like you. But, you know, artists only become famous after they're already dead."

Kaito's eyes twitch, that this little boy is being so callous about his profession. He hadn't realized the boy's daemon was so good at sniffing him out either. But he's the great Kaitou KID and he won't be caught here by someone who barely comes up to his knees. The charade is over and he can admit it.

"Fine. You've found me out. I'll give the pearl back." He draws the pearl out, a handkerchief wrapped around it to protect it from any damaging oils. "Tell Suzuki-san I'm sorry to have ruined her party." He throws the pearl to Conan, who catches it with a grin.

"Really? An apology? After everything you've done-"

"Oh, that's right. After borrowing her clothes, I left Mouri-chan asleep in a life boat." He pulls the neckline of the dress away from his chest, glancing down it meaningfully. "If you don't get to her soon, she might catch a cold."

The look of horrified surprise on Conan's face is a treasure.

"I'm quite the perfectionist when it comes to disguises." He draws up one bra strap, the silky pink lace sliding against his skin. Ran really has excellent taste.

It throws both boy and daemon, Hudson's growls cutting off sharply as Conan's mouth drops open. It's enough for him to pull out his sunglasses and throw one of his flashbombs. He throws off the clothes, leaving behind the underthings and the red dress, since he's got another waiter uniform stashed nearby as well as one of his dark costumes.

There's no way he can get to his glider now. So there's no other option than to go overboard into the water. Aares scolds him for being distracted, for being too involved in studying the little boy who trapped him. She'd slipped from Ran's otter daemon into a seal to help pull him to the docks.

Kaito just sighs, letting her fuss and mutter as he cleans his costume and helps Aares clean her fur.

Conan's in the papers the next day, touted as a hero, and Kaito's got a cold that will not go away. He's walking back home with Aoko when he spots Conan, Ran, and Suzuki-chan walking towards them. He sneezes and directs Aoko across the street, ignoring her berating him for the little lie he'd told her about falling in during his tour of the yacht.

It was the most thrilling chase yet.


	4. Chapter 4

Timeline: "Crystal Mother"

-X-

He watches the dummy fly away, Aares soaring above him at the absolute limit of their bond. His chest aches as she draws higher and farther, but they'd learned to shutter those feelings away within the bond itself. Despite the powerful wind and rattling train, he's comfortable to wait here and climb back into the train at his own leisure.

"You're just as naive as ever, Inspector..." He sighs to himself as Nakamori's yelling drifts up to him.

"You're the naive one."

Oh no.

It's Phillip. He's standing on the train just behind Kaito and his little daemon is a lemur clinging to his legs.

"Give back the jewel." He holds out a hand, demandingly. "Without it, the people of my country will be in trouble. So give it back!"

"But how did you know I was here?" he asks, drawing Aares back by concentrating on their bond.

"Conan-kun told me."

That little brat!

"Conan? So, he's on this train, too?" Why would Conan send a little boy up and out of the train in pursuit of a thief? Granted, he was a nonviolent thief, but he'd thought that Conan would have cared more about another child's safety.

He holds the Crystal Mother up to the moonlight, checking to see if the tell-tale red glow will spill out. If this is Pandora, there's no way he'll give it back, but if it's not... Phillip's going to be a hero.

"That man helped me get up here," Phillip continues and Kaito pauses.

"That man?"

"Yeah, he's behind me-" He cuts off with a grunt and alarm spikes through Kaito. He's on his feet before he realizes he's moved. Aares is battling the wind to come up ahead of them, and Kaito tracks her with a wary eye.

"I've waited for this moment, Kaitou KID!"

It's Snake.

He draws his card gun, but Snake destroys it with a bullet. The man's daemon is a snarling jackal, gripping the top of the train with clawed paws and menacingly snarling over Phillip and his daemon. Kaito drops to the train top to avoid more bullets, panting with the effort to stay on the train, watch out for Phillip, watch for Aares, and avoid injury.

"Sorry, but I don't have time to play with you." Snake's reloading his gun, eyes cold as he takes in Kaito and his jackal steps closer to Phillip. It closes its jaws around a tiny, wriggling mouse, just as Snake presses the barrel of his gun to Phillip's head. "Put the jewel down and turn around. You don't want this kid killed, do you?"

"You can't hand it over!" Phillip's voice shakes and his daemon whimpers loud enough Kaito can hear it.

Kaito's face hardens and he sets the jewel down.

"Don't try anything funny. You've always given me a hard time. Now turn around!"

He turns his back, watching Aares shift into a stronger flier to get ahead and out of sight, and then she shifts back into an eagle. She'll watch over him.

"This ends here for the immortal Kaitou Kid!"

"Well, I wonder about that." Aares nods to him. Kaito grits his teeth. He releases his cape and drops forward, watching Snake as the cape covers him. He's shooting blind and his jackal is disoriented enough to drop Phillip's daemon. The boy pulls her in close just as Snake throws the cape off.

"Don't underestimate me!"

Kaito grins and huddles down on the train top, just as Aares screams and knocks the jackal off the train. Snake shouts for it and turns back just in time to see the approaching tunnel. Aares presses down on Phillip, spreading her wings over the boy's curled body. There's too much adrenaline coursing through him to pick up anything but fear and needles from her head resting on the back of Phillip's neck.

They're out of the tunnel soon enough, and Aares climbs off Phillip and awkwardly walks over to Kaito. He's on his knees and creeps closer to the boy, smiling at Aares for assurance.

"Are you alright?" he asks as Phillip starts to get up.

"Give back the jewel!"

The boy has a one-track mind.

"Is that the attitude you use with someone who saved your life?"

"Without it, people in my country will-"

"I'm not giving it back to a liar," he taunts.

"What?" The boy is shocked, but Kaito's not.

"It's really for your mother, right? You want to get it back so she'll praise you. Isn't that right?"

The boy nods and it's all Kaito can do to not laugh at him. He's been that boy before and he could use the distraction, instead of thinking about Snake and how he'd missed catching him again.

"There's an even better way of discovering her feelings..." He coaxes the boy closer and drops an arm around his shoulders. "Go to her and tell her what you've done. Then you'll see."

He helps the boy back into the train and watches him vanish down the cars before he deems it safe to change out of costume and follow after him.

"That was too close," Aares mutters as she swoops in and settles on his shoulders, shrinking into a magpie as she speaks. Kaito nods and breathes out shakily. Once he's sure he's gotten a hold of himself, he heads into the train car where Phillip and his mother are reuniting.

Aoko wakes up just in time to find the Crystal Mother in her drink glass. There's a small celebration after that, but Kaito can let it go. The Crystal Mother wasn't Pandora, Snake is still out there but he's not invincible, and everything worked out alright for everyone involved.

At the station, Nakamori is proud and pleased to be walking with the Queen, still high after his victory over KID. Kaito just watches the Queen and Prince Phillip wave at the gathered crown, but he startles as Aoko grabs his arm and tugs him after them.

There's a moment where Mouri and her otter with Conan and Hudson run passed them, seemingly oblivious to Aoko and Kaito, and Kaito watches them from the corner of his eye. He can see the boy track the Crystal Mother, weighing its authenticity and smirking as he realizes its the real thing. Kaito grins, abruptly pleased, when he notices Conan and Hudson stop in the crowd, surprise and uncertainty on their faces.

"Kaito! We're falling behind! Hurry up!" Aoko yanks him into a faster pace beside her, and he barely falters as he turns away from the boy and his dog.


End file.
